One Step At A Time

Group Determined To See School Converted To Center

SUFFOLK — Some Suffolk residents are taking the first steps to meet a need in their neighborhood. The group's name - ACTION or All Citizens Taking Initiative On Needs - describes its tactics.

Frustrated with efforts to get Suffolk's City Council to allocate money to renovate the city's first black high school into a community center, a group of Suffolk residents began raising money in 1991 to renovate East Suffolk High. The Rev. Melvin R. Boone, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, is the founder and president of the group.

Two years later, ACTION has qualified for a $50,000 federal matching grant and is ready to sign a contract with an architect. The center should open by July.

"This tells people in the community that if you work hard, you can have some of the things that you want, says Ethel Hart, ACTION secretary. "Our salvation lies in our own hands. We have to be participants rather than sitting on the sidelines."

ACTION raised more than $80,000 through donations and fund-raisers such as candy and bake sales, gospel concerts, dinners and cookouts. Volunteers from the community lent the group a hand at some fund-raisers. Area churches have also held special services to raise money for the project.

The group's members, some of which are graduates of East Suffolk High, recognized the need for a center in the area near the school. Sixth Street, which is about two miles from downtown, has a large black population and is located near housing projects and other subsidized housing, Hart says.

"There's a need for young people to have something to keep them off the street and to provide supplemental programs such as tutoring," Hart says.

The closest community center to the neighborhood is Birdsong Recreation Center on North Main Street, about four miles away from East Suffolk High. Hart says Birdsong is not large enough to serve all of the area's residents and is geared to recreation.

ACTION hopes to implement recreation, as well as tutorial, anti-drug, anti-crime, cultural and senior programs. Since the area has a high unemployment rate, the group plans to offer job training. Organizers also hope to provide health screenings and use the building for a place to host reunions and other community events.

ACTION will hire an administrator to oversee the center and use volunteers and representatives from community services agencies, Hart says.

East Suffolk High opened in 1939 after a group of Suffolk parents appealed to the School Board for decent facilities for its children.

Georgia Williams, 66, an ACTION member group and graduate of East Suffolk High, says she's proud to know that her alma mater will be used to help the community. Her mother, Georgia Joyner was one of the parents who pushed for the city to build East Suffolk.

Williams says she sees young people in the area just hanging out on the streets.

"There are so many children who need somewhere to go," she says.

The school has three separate buildings - one with an auditorium and six classrooms; a main classroom building; and a gymnasium building. ACTION will first renovate the auditorium and classroom building and use it for tutoring and recreational activities. The second renovation will be to the gymnasium. To renovate all three buildings, ACTION would need about $1.5 million, Hart says.

When ACTION learned that it qualified for a $50,000 Department of Housing and Urban Development matching grant last year, the group wasted no time stepping up its fund-raising efforts to get the $50,000. It will know by next month whether it qualifies for a HUD matching grant for operating expenses.

The group received a big boost when it received a $25,000 donation from the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

City officials helped ACTION write grants and worked on an agreement that allows the group to lease the facility.

Making the project happen seemed enormous at first, Hart says, "but we just made up our minds that we would do it one step at a time."